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Friday, February 10, 2017

Day 39 1/10/17 - A Week In San Diego

I was to stay in San Diego for a week and then head back to AZ, but things changed and I'm going to be here another week before leaving. Well, my Prius will be.

My Prius is parked at the curb outside my son's house and I've been keeping my fridge running on my LiFePo4 house battery while I've been here.

I will start with why I'm staying longer than planned in San Diego. The family had a death this week that requires me to fly back to MA, and my son here is going too. My son in MD, that I met in Seattle, is heading to MA also.

It's only for a few days but since it takes a day to fly each way, we are making it a 4 day trip. My plan now is to leave San Diego a week from today to continue my Travels.

Back to the picture above. This is the only colorful sunrise I've seen where I'm staying. The view is from the room I'm calling home.

My goal for this first week in San Diego, beyond visiting the family, was to get in shape for my backcountry hike in March, as well as assess my backpacking needs and buy lightweight equipment for the hiking trip.

I met these goals and I also worked on the house here with my son. Overall it's been a great time.

My youngest granddaughter who is 6 wanted me to put her American Girl doll's hair in a bun, but all I could do is a pony tale. It's a though request for a grandfather, but I tried.

The oldest granddaughter has me working in books and doing homework before school each day. I had to be careful how they are teaching math as it is different than how I learned.

I hiked many days mostly Cowles MT/Pyles Peak. I hiked it yesterday by myself and today with my daughter in-law.

This is a great hike with lots of people on the trail with all different abilities. Today I felt the burn in my legs for the last couple hundred feet of elevation. I generally take a day off in between my hikes and haven't felt a strain. The fact I felt it was good as I was pushing hard today and included more weight in my daypack.

Yesterday after my hike I found this 9 hole disc golf course in Santee, CA. It is the next town over from Cowles MT/Pyles Peak.

This picture shows the course as mostly open but the few trees that exist, I seemed to find my disc flying into them, a number of times. It is a good par course, even with my drives that are not nearly as long as the younger guys that play.

As I was going through the McDonald's drive through in Santee after playing disc golf, I was in my glory with the temperature on the sign saying it was 81 today. I like it warm and we have had a number of cool days since I arrived.

Here in San Diego near the ocean tends to be cool with an on-shore flow keeping the temperatures in the 60's and Santee that is 20 or so miles inland is in the 80's.

It was a great week getting out every day to do biking, hiking and or disc golf. This is what I truly like to do on my travels.

I will be writing during my travels back home but yet again I may take a day or two off from posting once I'm on the road.

About Me

I retired from as
Fire Chief and Emergency Management Director for the Town of Westminster in
2014.Growing up I became an on-call
firefighter and continued in the Fire Department while I kept a full-time
career in high tech, eventually becoming the full-time Fire Chief in 1998, with
the downturn in the tech sector.

I have been
fortunate to have had many wonderful experiences working in the private sector
before my full-time employment before becoming Fire Chief/EMD. This
included being an Electronic Technician, and Manufacturing engineer for Bowmar/ALI,
Inc. Leominster/Acton MA, National Service Manager for Bruel and Kjaer
Instruments, Inc., Marlborough, MA, and Engineering Coordinator,
Manufacturing Project Manager, Group Manager, and Program Manager for Digital
Equipment Corporation/Compaq Computer Corporation, various locations in MA&
NH.

I continue to
teach Fire Science Degree Programs at Mount Wachusett Community College,
Gardner, MA, where I have been an Adjunct Professor since 2000.

I have received
degrees at the following institutions:

Lesley College; Masters of
Science in Management, January 1984

Fitchburg State College; Bachelor of Science in History, June 1979

Mount
Wachusett Community College; Associate in Electronic Engineering, June 1977.